Page:An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans.djvu/172

158 which time has respected;—this sanctuary, abandoned, isolated through barbarism, and surrendered to the desert from which it was won; this city, shrouded in the veil of mystery by which even colossi are magnified; this remote city, which imagination has only caught a glimpse of through the darkness of time—was still so gigantic an apparition, that, at the sight of its scattered ruins, the army halted of its own accord, and the soldiers with one spontaneous movement, clapped their hands."

The Honorable Alexander Everett, in his work on America, says: "While Greece and Rome were yet barbarous, we find the light of learning and improvement emanating from the continent of Africa, (supposed to be so degraded and accursed,) out of the midst of this very woolly-haired, flat-nosed, thick-lipped, coal-black race, which some persons are tempted to station at a pretty low intermediate point between men and monkeys. It is to Egypt, if to any nation, that we must look as the real antiqua mater of the ancient and modern refinement of Europe. The great lawgiver of the Jews was prepared for his divine mission by a course of instruction in all the wisdom of the Egyptians."

"The great Assyrian empires of Babylon and Nineveh, hardly less illustrious than Egypt in arts and arms, were founded by Ethiopian colonies, and peopled by blacks.

"Palestine, or Canaan, before its conquest by the Jews, is represented in Scripture, as well as in other histories, as peopled by blacks; and hence it follows that Tyre and Carthage, the most industrious, wealthy, and polished states of their time, were of this color."

Another strong argument against the natural inferiority of negroes may be drawn from the present condition of Africa. Major Denham's account of the Sultan of Sackatoo proves that the brain is not necessarily rendered stupid by the color of the face: "The palace as usual in Africa, consisted of a sort of inclosed town, with an open quadrangle in front. On entering the gate, he was conducted through three huts serving as guard-houses, after which he found Sultan Bello seated on a small carpet in a sort of painted and ornamented cottage. Bello had a